Comparative prevalence of otitis media in children living in urban slums, non-slum urban and rural areas of Delhi.

PURPOSE: The study aimed to determine the prevalence and profile of otitis media in different parts of a city, i.e. non-slum urban areas, urban slums and rural areas. METHODOLOGY: A door to door survey was conducted in identified areas of Delhi. A total of 3000 children (0-15 years) were randomly selected and examined for presence of otitis media. These children were equally distributed in the three areas under consideration. Data was analyzed to establish the prevalence of different types of otitis media. Chi-square test was then applied to compare disease prevalence among the three areas. RESULTS: 7.1% of the study population was identified with otitis media, which includes CSOM (4.26%), OME (2.5%) and ASOM (0.4%). In the non-slum urban parts of the city, 4.6% children had otitis media. This was significantly lower compared to 7% children in rural parts of Delhi and 9.9% in urban slums of the city. The prevalence of CSOM was considerably higher in slum areas (7.2%) as compared with rural (3%) and non-slum urban areas (2.6%). CONCLUSION: Ear infections are significantly more common in urban slums as compared to non-slum city areas and rural parts of Delhi.

Non-syndromic hearing impairment in India: high allelic heterogeneity among mutations in TMPRSS3, TMC1, USHIC, CDH23 and TMIE.

Mutations in the autosomal genes TMPRSS3, TMC1, USHIC, CDH23 and TMIE are known to cause hereditary hearing loss. To study the contribution of these genes to autosomal recessive, non-syndromic hearing loss (ARNSHL) in India, we examined 374 families with the disorder to identify potential mutations. We found four mutations in TMPRSS3, eight in TMC1, ten in USHIC, eight in CDH23 and three in TMIE. Of the 33 potentially pathogenic variants identified in these genes, 23 were new and the remaining have been previously reported. Collectively, mutations in these five genes contribute to about one-tenth of ARNSHL among the families examined. New mutations detected in this study extend the allelic heterogeneity of the genes and provide several additional variants for structure-function correlation studies. These findings have implications for early DNA-based detection of deafness and genetic counseling of affected families in the Indian subcontinent.

Sugar partitioning in sprouting lateral bud and shoot development of sugarcane.

Sugarcane is a leading energy crop of the world due to its ability to capitulate high sucrose. To understand the mechanism associated with shoot establishment from the lateral bud of sugarcane setts, at the time of germination, we established shoots and these shoots were incubated in total darkness and dark/light regime. The concentration of sugars (sucrose and hexoses) and activities of sugar metabolizing enzymes were measured from 0 to 21 days with 7 days intervals during shoot establishment using sugarcane cultivar CoS 97264. A decrease in sucrose concentration and increase in hexoses level was observed in intermodal tissues whereas in the shoots, the level of both sucrose and hexoses increased continuously during shoot establishment. During 0-21 days shooting period, the dry mass of internodes declined by 20 and 25% in plants incubated in dark/light and darkness respectively. All invertases, soluble acid invertase, neutral invertase and cell wall bound invertase were expressed with almost similar pattern in both the intermodal tissues and the shoots. The activity of enzyme sucrose synthase, measured within first 10 days of shooting in both types of tissues, appeared to be higher particularly in sugar breakdown direction. In the shoots, slight increase in sucrose synthase activity in sucrose synthesis direction was observed throughout shooting period in the shoots. The results suggest that sucrose is the main substrate used during shoot establishment and that shoot establishment period is characterized by increased activities of invertases and sucrose synthase and increased level of hexoses in the shoots.